Dota 2 News & Guides

Skeleton King is a STR carry that is ideal for beginner and novice players. His only active skill is a targeted stun that is impossible to miss/fail. The hero is very straightforward to play, you want to prioritize farm and take whatever kills come your way. Make sure you do not go ganking as SK is not a ganker and needs farm to be useful in the later stages of the game. Skill build:

1. Hellfire Blast
2. Stats
3. Hellfire Blast
4. Stats
5. Hellfire Blast
6. Ult
7. Hellfire Blast

Max Critical Strike next taking ult whenever necessary and maybe 1 level of Aura if you feel you need it before. Common item choices:

Hand of Midas
Power Treads
Armlet
Desolator
Assault Cuirass
Black King Bar

Shadow Fiend is an AGI carry best known as a glass-cannon powerhouse who farms incredibly fast. He is an intermediate-advanced level hero and should NOT be taken by beginners. If you want to practice with him feel free to fire up practice mode and thoroughly learn the placement of all his skills. With his recent buffs in 6.75 he should see a lot more playing time in competitive games. The only Shadow Fiend skill build you should use is:

1. Necromastery
2. Raze
3. Raze
4. Necromastery
5. Raze
6. Necromastery
7. Raze
8. Necromastery
9. Ult

Max your passive after and take ult whenever available. Use two shadowrazes in quick succession to farm creep waves quickly. Try and position your ultimate on top of as many heroes as possible for maximum damage output and effectiveness. You need to go mid as Shadow Fiend, take as many runes as possible and maximize your farm. Only gank if you get a good rune and think you can land a kill. For items there are a few options depending on your playstyle. Many people like Power Treads/BKB/Dagger, there are also others such as myself who prefer Phase/Drum/BKB. Shadow Blade is also a good choice if you are doing well and there isn't a counter such as Bounty or Slardar. Your core item will always be BKB. General item choices:

Bootle
Power Treads/Phase/Travels (only good if you can farm it quickly or as a late game pickup)
Drum
Dagger
Shadow Blade
Black King Bar
Manta Style
Desolator
Butterfly
Monkey King Bar
Eye of Skadi

Ogre Magi is an INT melee hero with a huge STR gain. He has a very basic skillset; a stun, a slow, a buff, and a boost to his stun via his ultimate. He is hard to bring down with his big HP pool but suffers from being melee and for having a poor mana pool. He is a great hero for beginners as he is very straight-forward to play. The most common skillbuild is:

1. Fireball
2. Ignite (I actually like getting 1 point in stats here instead)
3. Fireball
4. Ignite
5. Fireball
6. Ult
7. Fireball
8. Ignite
9. Ignite
10. Bloodlust
11. Ult
12+ max bloodlust, ult at 16

You want to prioritize your fireball as it boosts the damage and stun duration. You can also use it to get last hits at lower levels if you need some farm. Common item choices include:

Chicken/Wards
Arcane Boots/Tranquil Boots
Bottle/Soul Ring
Force Staff
Orb of Venom
Eul's Scepter
Aghanims
Sheep Stick

Make sure you are constantly ganking and keeping wards up as much as possible. You don't need any items beside some basic mana regen like bottle or soul ring. Try out Tranquil Boots + Soul Ring as well, it is a very good combo.